The parking lot was a war zone.  Outside the super center, shoppers screamed and died in the growing twilight as a wave of hungry, rotting creatures poured out of the derailed train’s wreckage. 

     High above the chaos, Agent Brant sat in the weapon systems control section of one of the two AH-64A Apaches which had been assigned to escort the train to the CDC in Atlanta. He cursed to himself as he looked down at the mess below.  He’d warned his superiors of the dangers in keeping the creatures “alive” but they wouldn’t listen.  Half of them wanted to study the things to see if the virus that gave them birth could be used a weapon and the other half were terrified of the public’s response if word got out that the government had ordered the death of an entire town.  Now the survivors, if they could be called that, of the Mcfall’s Springs incident were running loose on the streets of Athens all because of their shortsightedness and the haste that the whole operation was thrown together with.  The virus jumped from host to host at an unimaginable rate causing a gnawing hunger for human flesh and even reanimated the host upon death so that it could continue spreading and now it was loose not in a secluded and rural town like where it originated but in a major city.  

     Brant shook his head as the pilot’s voice crackled over the radio in his helmet.  “What do we do sir?”

     Brant wondered if he was watching the beginning of the end of the human race or if this was just another pointless loss of life that the government would somehow manage to contain at the last second like McFall’s Springs and sweep under the rug with the right “PR” spin. 

     Below the twin Apaches, Jessica wondered how it all had happened so fast.  She hadn’t even noticed the helicopters flying escort to the train.  Her eyes had been glued to the train itself as its wheels had skipped off the track and the locomotive had toppled off the track’s embankment only yards away from the far edge of the parking lot.  As bad as the wreck had been, it was nothing compared to what had came after it.  They came crawling and running out of the wreckage.  There must have been at least a hundred of them.  At first, everyone had thought they were passengers until the people who had rushed to meet and help them had been overran by them.  Those poor people had been knocked to the ground and ripped apart by the things from the things from the train.  It looked as if some of the things were actually eating them alive.  The rest of the folks in the lot watched in horror.  Some pointed at the terror unfolding before them and gawked while others broke into a run for the shopping center and the relative safety of its plexi-glass doors.  A few however who were already in or at their vehicles though decided to attempt to flee.  Cars backed into each and collided all around the lot or darted for the road careless of the people in their path adding to the death toll.  The creatures entered the lot and attacked anyone they could get their hands on.  Jessica saw a man only a few feet from her taken down by one of the things.  The man fought back but the creature managed to get its hands on his face.  Its fingers sunk deep into the man’s skull through his eye sockets until he stopped struggling and then the thing started tearing at his fleshly wildly with its teeth.  Blood covered its hungry face as it smacked its lips and chewed on the man’s throat.  Jessica forced herself to look away.  She knew she had to take action or she’d be just as dead as he was.  She spun about and broke into a run for the store’s main entrance, joining the herd of frightened folks with the same idea.

     Jessica fought through the mass of people pushing and shoving their way into the store only to run into the panicked shoppers inside trying to fight their way out.  Those who’d been inside had no idea what was happening outside but somehow they must have known they needed to get the hell out of here and figured they needed to get to their cars in order to do so.  An overweight lady shoved Jessica out of her path and sent Jessica flying to the floor.  Several people stepped on her before she managed to crawl into a corner of the space between the store’s outer and inner doors.  She huddled herself into a ball holding her legs to her chest and stared at right hand.  Two of her fingers had been broken the heel of some redneck man’s combat boots.  Tears slid down her cheeks as she watched the battle between those trying to get in and those trying to get out.  She was still crying when the flames washed over her.

     “Sir?” his pilot asked again as Brant ended his communication with DC.  Brant leaned forward resting his head in his hands.  His conversation with the powers that be had not gone well.  Again, he’d urged them to take extreme measures but they refused.  They believed they could coordinate with the local authorities and scramble enough troops from nearby bases to contain the outbreak.  They were fools.  Brant knew if the spread of the virus was to be stopped something had to be done right now.  “This bird is fully armed isn’t it?” 

     “Yes sir,” the pilot answered. 

     “They’re sending troops to try to contain this mess but they’ll never reach here in time.  We need to do something do slow down the spread of the virus.  I want you to fly me where I can get a shot to level that store and then expend everything else you’re carrying on the parking lot.  Order the other Apache to do the same but make sure they take out the train wreckage first just in case some of those things didn’t make it out.”

     “But all those people. . . “

     “That’s an order soldier.  Do it or I will personally shoot you in the head myself when we land.”

     The Apache swung around to face the shopping center and Brant took aim.  He released all of the bird’s Hydra 70mms into the structure and then emptied the Apache’s supply of Hellfires onto the parking lot for good measure.  The other Apache picked its targets more carefully since it had a trained gunner.  Rockets flew into clusters of cars so that the secondary explosions would maximize their damage over the large area.  When both Apaches were done, they hovered above a sea of flame.  Brand ordered his pilot to take him lower and he fired the bird’s 30mm canon at anything he could find that was still moving until he’d emptied all of the gun’s 1200 rounds.